Erica Harper
Erica Cecilia Harper was a fictional character and the primary antagonist and principal villainess on the series, Harpers Falls. She was played by actress Catherine Hickland, who is best known for her role of Lindsay Rappoport on One Life to Live. The role was originated by actress Megan Ward, and then was played for an abbreviated stint by actress Laura Wright (who now plays Scott Ames' sister, Linda Anne), before Hickland became the third Erica. Hickland played Erica until the character was killed off in prison. The Harpers troublemaking sister A woman who seemed to be hidden away from the rest of her family, Erica had always tried to be the public face of the Harper family. For a while, she had succeeded in this by being a Reporter/Anchorperson at WCBZ-TV and then later on at WBOS-TV. But frustration upon frustration, heaped upon by her inborn insecurities, caused her to finally snap and caused her to commit some very nasty crimes towards those she proportedly loved. Even though she too was the adopted mother of Mark Harper and Joanna Niewoehner, that still wasn't enough for the frustrated and covetous Erica. In fact, Erica callously kept letters from Joanna constantly. These letters were sent by Jo's blood sister, Cara Niewoehner. If Erica didn't have control of everything, it didn't make her happy. Erica had to control everything, and when she couldn't, her tendency to be conniving came out in full bloom. During her time in London, she had the nerve to tell off Lady Carleila Austin for her marriage to Lord David Austin. Lady Carleila put the snobby Erica in her place by telling her that "she had no right to sit in judgment of people she had no business being in judgment of!" Erica never forgave Lady Carleila for that. Her main venom was toward her niece, Hannah Harper Atchley when she had her husband (which nobody in the Harper family knew about), Nigel Bennett, to impregnate her to have a baby. She eventually did, naming the child, Maggie, and that allowed Erica to relentlessly go after Hannah to take the baby. She intended for Nigel to have the baby, but deep inside, she wanted the baby herself, to prove to everyone that she demanded attention. It was later revealed that Erica had Nigel rape Hannah for her to have her baby. Nigel had not wanted to (which showed that despite his criminality, he did have decency). However, it was discovered that Hannah HAD found out, from some documents that Nigel's brother, Steven Bennett and her fiance, Craig Atchley had unearthed. Her antics toward Hannah was only the tip of the iceberg. She also antagonized her older brother, Michael by demolishing his short-lived marriage to Natalya Ashton. Eventually he realized that her baby wasn't his, and the two amicably annulled the marriage, which left Erica to gloat. She then tangled with Wendy Schraederman when she first became a part of the family. She demanded that Nigel be recognized as a part of the family, and that nobody else was a part of that family. Selfishly, she wanted everything her way. In the end, Erica's scheming lead to her death. She had been trying to redeem herself by helping her beloved nephew, Dylan Harper, deal with the death of his spouse, Alex Corwin. She had no idea that her former aide-de-camp, Shawn Hartselle Harper was her nephew (via her sister, Samantha). While on a trip to Europe, her private plane (a left over from her marriage to Nigel) crashed into the Alps, almost 200 miles from Lausanne, Switzerland. Her dead body was discovered a few days later. Hannah was relieved that her deadly aunt was dead. However, she DID survive the plane crash! She was hidden in a special hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, where she had been taken from Lausanne, for several months of surgery and was fortunate to be alive! Upon her release, Erica headed back to Boston. She then made her unwelcome reveal to the stunned denizens of Louisburg Square in December! Besides her war with Steven, she will be also dealing with a vicious rival in Nigel's WIFE, Sharmaine Jones! The ice-queen Sharmaine reveals that Erica's marriage to Nigel was a farce, and that he was a bigamist! This, along with Sharmaine's knowledge of what Erica has done, will allow Sharmaine to ally herself with Erica's family, the Harpers, while she plans to put Erica in her place once and for all! As if dealing with Sharmaine and her personal assistant Marta Srinivasen (both of whom hate her with a passion) wasn't bad enough, she will be tangling with Libby Atchison, now released from prison, and totally unhinged because of it. Libby and Erica have never liked one another, (as the result of a chance meeting between the two going very badly between those two, which nearly came to blows) even before the former ordered the death of Alex Corwin, and that long-simmering animosity will spill over into a turf war between the two wicked women. Libby vows to make Erica Harper suffer for whatever sins she thinks her family inflicted on her, while Erica vows to show this upstart to not mess with someone who is more determined, more sinister and out and out more stubborn! It is a battle between two very vindictive women which could leave no winners and many losers. Erica realized that she was not well loved around her family; so, the spiteful woman was driven out of the Beacon Hill area. She realized, much to her horror, that the only place that had open apartments was in the more grittier, working-class city of Detroit. Knowing that she was not welcomed in Beacon Hill, she holds her nose and finds an apartment there. Hiding in Detroit will also keep her from her very angry niece, Anyssa Harper Forson. Erica had also kidnapped Ellie, one of her quadruplets, and Anyssa is out for her blood. Conflict of interest or no conflict of interest, she will aim to prosecute her vicious aunt for kidnapping. Erica passed Ellie off as her own daughter, Alicia (taking the name from her deceased cousin, Alicia Lambert), but word has a way of spreading around Detroit, and it could only be a matter of time when Anyssa finds her wicked aunt and forces her to give back her daughter. However, she let Ellie be released, and returned to her family, to Anyssa's relief, before she moved to Detroit, but undaunted, Erica kidnapped another baby from another Beacon Hill family, and is now currently passing the new baby off as Alicia! Recently, Erica has blackmailed a man named Frank Wallace to impersonate her late father, Richard Harper to weaken her family and then to kill Dylan, so she could do an end run around her family and grab their fortune from them. However, her scheme was foiled when Frank told the entire blackmail story to his wife. She died at the hand of another of Erica's henchmen, and he is now in her cross-hairs for his scuttling her plan. There is nothing that this wicked woman is capable of doing. Her jig is up though when a neighbor, who was hearing all her plans, and not bothering to be discrete about it, calls the police and the FBI and Erica is arrested. She went to prison at MCI-Plymouth Unit. She is irate again when not just Dylan and his now spouse, Adam got married at Trinity Church, but her brother, Aaron and her hated enemy, Marta also got married. Erica's constant haranguing and her annoying attitude towards Joanna and her relationship with her sister, Cara, finally pushed her to change her last name back to her birth name of Niewoehner. She tried to have both Joanna and Cara removed from the family because of the name change, but public opinion in the family was running high against her, and her scheme to get rid of Joanna and Cara was thwarted before it even began! Once again, an occasion where she tried to force her way blew up in her face. Erica was not caring, when she heard about her brother, Michael, dying in his townhouse backyard. She and Michael had never been close and they often quarreled. The setback with Joanna and Cara did not stop Erica from taking her revenge on Michael's daughter, Hannah for her not handing over Maggie. After planning it for weeks, she carried out her plan. She committed hit and run and blatantly killed Hannah on Louisburg Square, in full view of everyone. This act of brazen treachery on her part was the final straw for the rest of the family. After Hannah was cremated, the Harpers unanimously and outright exiled her from their presence and their lives. Erica was also shipped off back to prison (she had escaped from prison, stole a car and ran down her niece) and is now there at present, and still truly unrepentant for anything she had done to her family. Erica always claims her best interests is her family, but now she has none, due to her selfish actions. However, while in Prison, where she was sent for killing Hannah, she had finally begun to think about what she had done. Had she lived, she would have been redeemed. However, a rival prisoner, who hated Erica (presumably someone sent by the series' current villain, Rhonda Whittenberg), shanked her with a homemade shank and killed Erica. This time, Erica is truly dead. At least, Erica died in repenting for her crimes. Category:Characters Category:Harper family Category:Villains Category:Harper family enemies